The Crew-7 Dragon spacecraft launched by SpaceX on Sunday, August 27, successfully docked with the International Space Station as its crew of four astronauts began their six-month mission.
The four Crew-7 astronauts of the US, Europe, Japan and Russia aboard SpaceX’s Dragon docked ISS where it parked itself at a space-facing port on the outpost’s US built Harmony module after flying a wide loop around the orbital outpost.
“Thank you so much,” the Crew-7 Commander Jasmin Moghbeli of NASA radioed to SpaceX mission control after the successful docking. “I have to keep reminding myself that this is not a dream.”
Docking took place about 09:16 Eastern Standard Time (EST) while two spacecrafts orbited above Australia.
“This is the first step of the journey, the real mission begins now,” Crew-7 pilot Andreas Mogensen of the European Space Agency radioed SpaceX. “Aboard the International Space Station, we have a lot of work ahead of us that we look forward to.”